Scientific name: Helicoverpa assulta (Guenee)
English name: oriental tobacco budworm
size: the body length of the budworm is 17 mm and the length of adult wings are 35 mm.
Host: Chili, tobacco and more
Distribution: Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and more

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oriental tobacco budworm larva (its head)

The color of its adult's body is yellow and its front wings are brown with wave patterns. The body length of the tabacco budworm is 17 mm and the length of spread wings are around 35 mm. The late-instar larva is light green and it is white around back and windpipe. There are black dots around there. The length of its larva is around 40 mm.

ⓒ 2018 JADAM All Right Reserved

oriental tabacco budworm pupa

ⓒ 2018 JADAM All Right Reserved

late instar oriental tabacco larva. (on the tabacco leaf)

It appears 3 times a year. It stays over the coldest season under the ground as a pupa. It damages leaves of tabacco and fruit of chili. The damage is worse for chili but you can see it more often from tabacco. It is estimated that the first generation stays in tabacco farms and the second generation move to chili farms. It is easy to find oriental tabacco budworm in the farm where they have both chili and tabacco. The adult appears during early to late June, late July to early August and early September. The first generation lives for 26 to 31 days in general. The adult spawns 300 to 400 eggs but the amount of eggs are different depending on the oriental tabacco budworm. There was one that spawned around 700 eggs. It spawns eggs apiece on the leaf, flower, fruit of chili. So it is hard to find them.

It attacks chili and tobacco mainly but it also damages tomato, corn, green pepper, cotton, marijuana and more. The adult appears during August to September. It hides in where has similar color with them. Their distributions are Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan and more.